Citing advanced years and infirmity, but showing characteristic tough-mindedness and unpredictability, Pope Benedict XVI shocked Roman Catholics on Monday by saying that he would resign on Feb. 28, becoming the first pope to do so in six centuries.

Speaking in Latin to a small gathering of cardinals at the Vatican on Monday morning, Benedict said that after examining his conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of leading the worlds one billion Roman Catholics.

The statement, soon translated into seven languages, ricocheted around the globe.

A shy, tough-minded theologian who seemed to relish writing books more than greeting stadium crowds, Benedict, 85, was elected by fellow cardinals in 2005 after the death of John Paul II. An often divisive figure, he spent much of his papacy in the shadow of his beloved predecessor.

Above all, Benedicts papacy was overshadowed by clerical abuse scandals, a scandal of leaked documents from within the Vatican itself and tangles with Jews, Muslims and Anglicans. In the case of his handling of the sex abuse crisis, critics said that his failures of governance were tantamount to moral failings.

In recent months, Benedict had been showing signs of age. He often seemed tired and even appeared to doze off during Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, after being brought to the altar of Saint Peters on a wheeled platform. But few expected the pope to resign so suddenly, even though he had said in the past that he would consider the option.

The pope took us by surprise, said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, expounding on one of the most dramatic moments in centuries of Vatican history.

A very surprising move, historically quite rare, not having occurred for six centuries. A unique position, combination of political, religious power, admiration, prestige of the highest esteem, the Pope's Infallibility, provides so many aspects of desirability making resigning as Pope quite rare indeed.

Have read many articles today and some speculating who will be the new Pope. The Cardinals will take into consideration where the majority of their church financing comes from if they elect white, latino or a black pope.

I presume the Pope is doing this in the fullness of his reason, and no doubt with a good deal of personal regret. But it is not like he was being FORCED out of office, he has merely recognized the limitations of the flesh, and is laying down the mantle.

The worst sort of speculation, would be on who the new Pope might be, and how that would impact the path the Roman Catholic Church, and subsequently just about all of Christianity, would follow in the future.

The Catholic oligarchy is by nature conservative, and it is highly unlikely they are easily panicked by the adversity that seems to be surging around the world. But they still do have some sort of reconciliation with the external situation, and like a great ship at sea, all changes of course are at the most quite minute and slowly undertaken.

Pope Benedict XVI greets the youth in front of a huge Jesus Christ portrait in Krakow in this May 27, 2006 file photo. Pope Benedict said on February 11, 2013 he will resign on Feb 28 because he no longer has the strength to fulfill the duties of his office, becoming the first pontiff since the Middle Ages to take such a step.

4
posted on 02/11/2013 10:54:27 AM PST
by Berlin_Freeper
(If you want to ring the bell - you got to swing the hammer hard!)

I would not be surprised by an African or South American pope. Then again, there hasn't been an Italian pope in more years than I care to remember and that has folks in Rome scratching their heads. About the only thing that would surprise me would be a Chinese pope.

If the college of cardinals is looking at the world today, in the manner that they looked at Poland in the late 70s, then I can see them sticking with Europe because of the increasing Muslim presence there. I can also see the growth of the Church in Africa leading to picking someone fron there.

I'm in Brooklyn, where we've felt the shortage of clergy, and have seen parishes close or consolidate. Over the past decade, we've had a number of visiting priests. At least three of them from Kenya.

God Bless him!! Notwithstanding the slams in the article, Pope Benedict has been just what the Church needed the past few years. I respect him for admitting that the job is getting to be too much for him. He knows how important it is for the Church to have a strong, healthy leader, here on Earth, to serve our Lord among His people. I know the Holy Spirit will guide the College of Cardinals when they meet to choose a successor.

It is rumored that he advised John Paul II to resign. The sex crisis blew up at a time when the pope was virtually incapacitated. Not until he was elected in 2005 was Benedict able to take strong measures—often against liberals in and out of the Vatican who opposed him. I imagine that the recent scandals involving his butler helped decide him. reminding me of Thurgood Marshalls comment on why he was resigning from SCOTUS Im just too damn old! There should an age limit on our high officials. Maybe 80. Even old people in good health are seldom suited for the high pressures of office.

The malice marbled in this text, and in similar attempts in the next weeks to understand a man and a faith so alien to the writers as to render them as schoolyard children attempting to describe quantum physics, will be evidence of just how counter-cultural is this holy man and his holy faith.

Liberals have never liked this pontiff, citing that he is too conservaive

For that reason they have tried to tie the sex abuse scandals to PBXVI. Actually, such scandalous behavior is tied to immorality among a certain segment of the priesthood, and the fears of many bishops that scandalous exposure would be worse that covering it up.

The cover up ended up being much worse since it implied and in fact, proved, that some of the clericals in the church thought more about their own pride and prestige, than about the good of the victims and stopping the behavior in its tracks.

Pope Benedict had nothing to do with thi scandal except that he inherited the remnants of the scandal which had been publicly exposed for about the past 10-15 years, and has for the most part, been remedied by most dioceses.

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